The Prophets, Their Lives and Their Stories: Translator's...

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This is a translator's preface and prefatory notes to an English translation of a Shiite Islamic religious book by Abdul-Sâhib Al-'âmeli, written by Taher Al-Shemaly of Kuwait. The translator explains his methodology and limitations, noting that Arabic's flexibility made exact translation difficult and that some passages remained untranslatable. The core content introduces foundational Shiite doctrine — specifically the belief in a continuous line of divinely appointed viceroys (imams) stretching from Adam through the Prophet Muhammad and his twelve designated successors, ending with the "awaited" Mahdi believed to still be living. The preface clarifies the Sunni-Shiite distinction (Sunnis reject the imamate concept in favor of communal succession), and explicitly pushes back against the common conflation of Shiite identity with Iranian nationality. A distinctive feature is the translator's effort to bridge audiences unfamiliar with Islamic sectarian theology by drawing cross-cultural analogies (e.g., comparing "ben" to the Irish "mac") and listing abbreviations, transliteration conventions, and the full roster of the twelve imams with their epithets.

The Prophets, Their Lives and Their Stories: Translator's...

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